World View & Market Commentary. Forest first; Trees second. Focused on Real & Knowable facts that filter through the "experts" fluff and media hyperbole. Where we've been, what the future may hold and developing a better way forward.

Saturday, March 21, 2009

New comers to my site may see me and the others here as a “gloom & doomers.” Primarily the news and information found on this site is mostly negative, no doubt.

For years, however, the roses, rainbows, and sunshine painted by the mainstream media on the boob tube by our media and also by our government has created a FALSE sense of wellbeing. A FALSE sense of REALITY.

What is real?

Math is real. The numbers associated with the debt that underlies our economy is real. It can be twisted to sound as if it’s all under control even if it’s not, but it is real. To untwist it, simply compare all debts to all income and you will see reality. It does not work.

As a collective society we have been living a mass psychosis – we’ve been fooling ourselves. We say and think ridiculous things when it comes to the economy. Things like 2% inflation every year, year after year is good. Things like we are protecting our freedom by spending more on our “defense” than the rest of the world combined. Things like its okay to spend trillions and trillions now because we can grow our way out in the future.

That’s all FANTASY.

We’ve been fooling ourselves, or someone’s been fooling us.

I think it’s both.

I’m a naturally happy and optimistic person by nature. Don’t laugh, it’s true! How do you think I can wade into this market cesspool and maintain a good attitude, and still be happy? During the bubble years, I played the bubble games. I owned many rental homes and played in the stock market - LONG. Leverage was the thing to do. And if that was still the thing to do, that’s what I’d recommend. But that was then.

My life experiences have taught me how the world really works. At least the way I see reality…

The first real eye opener to me was when I was flying in the Air Force and saw how much of what we were doing was just wasteful. The budgets are “use it, or lose it.” Thus, even if you didn’t need it, you still loaded up the plane and bored holes through the sky, pouring JP-4 out the back and taxpayer dollars with it. The rule was to ask for a bigger budget each year, and they were almost never denied.

That’s how government works. It grows bigger over time, each little fiefdom growing into a little empire. The little empires expand and turn into big empires. Eventually the entire thing implodes under its own weight – that’s what has happened to all empires throughout history, and it’s happening to us now.

You would think that if I could see this happening that our “mature” leaders would be bright enough to see it coming and to create a sustainable system for the long term. Not so.

I learned right away that you cannot buck that system. If you do, you and your career go nowhere – that was obvious from watching others, so you just go along. And it was comedy central watching the people transition from the lower officer ranks to the upper. They would always say, “When I get to be a General, I’ll be able to make a difference!” Ha, ha… what a joke, the Peter Principle in action. For the most part those who rose where the ones who couldn’t see how the world really works. Not to say there were not exceptions, there were, and there are some very fine commanders. But most do not see reality for what it is.

Reality struck me when the military initiated its AVIP program. That’s the one that mandates the Anthrax Vaccine for ALL military personnel. Long story short, this program was all about money, not force protection as they claimed.

At the time things were heating up with Iraq and that was used as an excuse. No member of any military of any country throughout the history of mankind had ever been exposed to anthrax, yet it was suddenly a priority to spend millions upon millions to vaccinate every member of the military, even the 110 pound pregnant clerk sitting behind the desk at McChord A.F.B., WA.

Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Crowe (now deceased), was given a sizable equity stake in Bioport, Inc., a Lansing Michigan company to lobby the Pentagon to make the vaccine mandatory. Bioport was owned by a European man of Middle Eastern descent with a last name you may recognize – Bin Laden. Yes, a relative of Osama.

The money flowed and the Pentagon agreed.

“If only you knew what we know, then you will willingly take this series of vaccines,” They said.

The lies and manipulation flowed like an open fire hydrant. Many people who took the shots were injured and their injuries were not acknowledged as coming from the vaccine. People’s voices were suppressed – I saw that first hand. Over a quarter of my reserve unit (officer pilots) refused the vaccine and resigned – myself included. They were told not to state the AVIP program as the reason why on their resignation paperwork. They were “gagged” yet I did not comply, that is not in my nature.

This is a long and complex story, I could write a novel about it, but the bottom line is that it was all about the money.

Why am I telling the short version of this story? Because it speaks to the root cause of our economy and what is going to happen to it moving forward. But let me connect some more of the dots…

When I worked for an airline I found many of the same types of inefficiencies. Being the well intentioned employee, of course did my best to help my organization/ corporation just like most do. But then some ugly events unfold… an airplane crashes into the ocean because a part was not replaced on a decision to save money. Flight rules are “bent” and manipulated and “interpreted” in ways that save money. And those who dare to question are “gagged.” This can be very subtle, and most people cave easily under pressure, especially where their paycheck is concerned, but if you are identified as a leader for change, even if it may benefit the organization, you will be especially prone to being silenced.

I think we all just witnessed an example of that with Rick Santelli at CNBC. I guarantee you that he was “gagged” after his tea party comments and he has since been biting his lip while tip toeing around the issue of bond market manipulation, insider information, and quantitative easing.

I know how that works. While he may not have been DIRECTLY told not to do it, he was probably subtly “counseled.” But the hint was there that if Rick continues to make waves then his job, his paycheck, and his ability to service his DEBTS might be in jeopardy. He is frustrated because he sees the truth and others around him choose to ignore it or do not see it for what it is. This puts Mr. Santelli in a moral and ethical bind.

My prediction? Look for Rick to no longer be working at CNBC within a year – it will be of his own accord. Then look for a book from him within a year following that. They are cleansing to principled people, I know.

Here’s another little story that I ran across that demonstrates how the real world works:

FOX Reporters FIRED for truth:

Bet you’re going to be drinking organic milk after viewing that. I do.

And how does all this relate to the mess our economy finds itself?

You, and all of us, have been conditioned with little white lies. The government “adjusts” the way it calculates its data. Inflation, employment, GDP, etc. Our banks move items into the “level 3” asset category and mark them in value according their own made up model. There are thousands of these little white lies now permeating our economy, and they all add up, one on top of the other until the distortions are so huge that REALITY is not recognized.

Our marketing industry is a part of the white lie problem. Perceptions are molded and shaped. And who has the money to mold and shape those perceptions, to get their little white lies across the screen? We can all site many examples, programming begins at an early age.

The teenaged boy who sees a fancy Mercedes drive by sees a rich man inside. When he sees a man drive by in a 10 year old pickup, he sees a poor man. Where did that perception come from?

A wiser, older man seeing those same two cars roll by knows that may be true, but the odds are that one of those men is in debt, a slave; and the other is free. Money can create freedom only when it is earned. When it is borrowed, money, credit, debt, does not represent freedom, it represents the opposite. Our system is now shackled with debt that controls while your politicians wish to ignite a flurry of “credit” to help.

Money’s influence has concentrated into fewer and fewer hands. Much of the media is owned and controlled by the same people who run the large banks, as is much of the military industrial complex. They derive their power through money and control others by using their money to influence the political system getting laws passed in their favor, and also directly through the permeation of debt. Debt is a spiraling ride that once you’re on, is very difficult to get off. That’s true on the individual level, but also on the Nation level.

It was not our founding father’s intent to put the Central bankers and OUR money system in charge of our nation, yet it seems to me that they are, and there are no checks and balances, they have all been bought and paid for.

PEOPLE create corporations. Corporations were not intended to rule the world either. They were allowed to be created to insulate holders of capital so that they could invest in risky exploration without having to risk their entire wealth. This is how Spain and England were able to finance ships that explored the high seas. Today corporations lobby politicians and donate to their campaigns. They write laws and hand them to their politicians to be implemented on their behalf. Thus the PEOPLE have been removed from the process. Sure, you get to vote for your politician, you have a choice between two candidates who both made it on the ballot with corporate sponsorship.

It’s time to separate corporations from State.

It’s time America.

We are about to get run over by a tsunami, it is right around the corner. Tax revenues are cliff diving, spending is ramping and now we are out in the open printing money by the trillions.

Anyone, and especially foreigners, would be NUTS to buy treasuries to finance our debts while we manipulate, control, and artificially lowers rates while at the same time intentionally devalue our currency.

In the two days following the latest FOMC announcement the dollar lost more than 5% of its value. That means that Bernanke forced a 5% pay cut on everyone in America. In just two days.

It’s time to revisit the fundamental ideas of freedom and of the REPUBLIC. It’s time to revisit our morals and our ethics. To stare reality in the face and to stop telling ourselves little white lies.